Postgraduate students – taking a break or withdrawing from your studies

If you decide to take a break or withdraw from your postgraduate Master’s course, you need to let your university know as soon as possible so they can tell us.

We’ll then stop your Postgraduate Loan payments. If you do get paid anything after this, you may be asked to repay it straight away, so it’s important you contact us and let your university know as soon as you leave your course.

If your university has agreed that you can take a break from your course, your payments will start again when you return. However, if you take a break for two years or more during your course, you’ll only get further payments if you can show you have compelling personal reasons, such as illness or bereavement.

If you withdraw from your course completely, we’ll stop any further payments.

Repeating a year

You can’t usually get funding to repeat a year, unless you have compelling personal reasons.

If you’ve been paid too much

If you’ve left your course early, this might mean you’ve been overpaid.

Usually, we’ll just take the amount from any future payments you’re due. For example, if you’re overpaid by £300 and are due a future payment of £1,000, we’ll pay you £700 instead.

If you’re not due any future payments, we’ll contact you about alternative ways to repay.